More detail on this person: Colonel Robert (Bob) Arnau sadly passed away on February 24, 2015 at
Riverside Community Hospital. He was 81. This information was last updated 05/18/2016
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Date posted on this site:
08/31/2024
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Colonel Arnau was the former Riverside County General Services Agency Director who oversaw the
construction of numerous buildings that are still in use today. His direction helped reshape
downtown Riverside.
Bob Arnau was born on June 3, 1933 in Hollywood, Florida to Julian and Leona Arnau. He was his high
school class president and became the first person in his family to attend college, earning a full
scholarship to the University of Miami (Fla). He graduated from the "U" with a Civil Engineering
degree in 1955. After completing ROTC, he entered the US Air Force and earned his pilot wings in
1956 at Webb Air Force Base, Texas. Bob married Mary Angela Mascaro in 1963 in Lubbock, Texas
and they spent the next 52 years traveling the world together, very much in love.
Colonel Arnau served 29 years in the Air Force as a pilot, engineer and commander. He was a highly
decorated Vietnam Veteran helicopter pilot, receiving multiple medals of valor earned in combat,
including three distinguished flying crosses. Colonel Arnau honorably retired from the Air Force at
March Air Force Base in 1984 and went to work for Riverside County as the Director of the General
Services Agency. During his ten year service, he supervised the construction of the Riverside Hall
of Justice, the Robert Presley Detention Facility, the Health and Welfare Administrative Center, the
Victor Miceli Law Library addition, multiple sheriff stations and numerous other buildings. He
retired from Riverside County in 1993 and taught at the UC Riverside Adult Extension Program for
several years.
Bob enjoyed his retirement years traveling with Mary, continuing his association with numerous
organizations such as the Order of Daedalians and the Military Officers Association and proudly
enjoying his very close family and many, many friends.
Colonel Arnau is survived by his wife Mary; his two sons Robert and John; his daughter Michelle; and
his two grandchildren
Olivia and Jake.
Memorial services will be held at 11am on Thursday, March 12th at the Riverside National Cemetery.
In lieu of flowers, his
family is requesting donations be made to the City of Hope Cancer Center (1500 E. Duarte Rd, Duarte,
CA).
Bob was a hero, a patriot, a loving husband, father and poppop. He was a true officer and a
gentleman. He will be dearly
missed.
This one strikes particularly hard to me. I flew several missions with, then, Maj. Arnau, in 69-70
while with the 21st SOS. He was my pilot and aircraft commander on one particular mission on 18 Nov.
1969 (a "Prairie Fire" emergency extraction) that earned him, our co-pilot, Jerry Kibby, flight
engineer/gunner Charles Hall and myself as a flight engineer/gunner the Distinguish Flying Cross.
From: Jim Burns
Thoughts on Returning from War
By Colonel Robert R. Arnau (Major Arnau at time of writing)
2/28/70
I have finished fighting my first war. God knows I hope it is also my last. Unfortunately, the war
continues at full pitch, unabated. There is no avoiding the cliché - war is indeed hell! I find my
capability as a writer totally inadequate to describe the personal emotions of one involved.
Needless to say they are deep, strong, sometimes nearly overwhelming. The constant presence of fear
is a terrible thing, yet it is there every day in varying degrees for each man participating. For
some, the fear is continually enormous. For others it is undulating, sometimes great, sometimes
nearly absent. It is axiomatic that bravery acknowledges the presence of fear. Without the latter,
the former cannot exist. Consequently, bravery must be judged in terms of the fear overcome. A
routine act by one may well be heroic by another. The threshold of fear, that point where fear
becomes truly significant, varies greatly between individuals. Strangely, this threshold sometimes
appears to vary within the individual. One day he is fearless - the next obsessed with the presence
of danger.
The true test of bravery then is the completion of the mission in the presence of fear. This I have
seen daily, continually in my war. Men accomplishing assigned tasks in the presence of gut rendering
fear. What is this fear? Of injury? No. It is a fear of cessation of existence. The fear of not
returning to one's family. The fear of not being permitted to fulfill one's normal lifespan. This is
an awesome thing yet surely is as old as war itself.
In my peculiar war, where one is allotted a specified time span of duty, the fear seems to grow as
one nears the goal of a completed tour.